The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1887-03-21
I.EPROSY IN SAN FRANCISCO.
Three Brothers who Are Victims OF
the Dread Disease--M edica1 Treat
ment Unavaillng-A Living
Death.


better known as the pest-house, con-
tains not single case OF smallpox,
and has not had one for some time,
says The San Francisco Chronicle, but
there are four patients there who are
booked as being afflicted with that most
dreaded of all diseases, leprosy. One
of these is James Scguyc, II colored
man. n native of st, Augustine, Fla,
who has been in the hospital since
March 8. 1880. There is some doubt
about his case. When he went to the
hospital the skin was coming off his
hands, arms. and body in scales, which
resemblcd wheat bran, but after n
course of treatment the sealing OIL
ceased; the disease has made no appar-
cnt progress since. As leprosy proper
has never been known TO be affected by
treatment, but pursues its march slow
ly, yet relcntlcssly, the physicians in
cline to the opinion that Scguye's dis
ease is something else, possibly of sy-
philitic nature. However, as he is will
ing to remain and as the disease is UNI
defined, he is still in the hospital. He
washes the clothes of himself and the
three other patients, and calls himself
the laundryman of the institution, de
claring that he is not an invalid.
The other three patents are three
brothers -Frank. Edward and Ernest
Bindt- who have been in the hospital
but short time and whose cases are
interesting for several reasons. Their
father is Il white man and their mother
a native of the Hawaiian islands. Bindt
is at present employed in the Spreckels
sugar refinery, and frequently visits his
sons. The boys, who were born in the
Sandwich islands. would be taken for
iull-bloodcd Americans. The family re-
sided in the islands when the mother
was discovered to be afflicted with
symptoms of the disease. Bindt en-
pended large sums of money in doctor
ing. as the drowning man grasps at the
straw. but in vain. The disease is SO
common and so generally understood
in the islands that it could not long go
undetected, and the family came to San
Francisco. Here Mrs. Bindt made
! further efforts to combat the scourge,
hoping against hope that it might be
something else than lcprosy, but about
three years ago DR., Meares told her she
had the disease beyond a doubt, and
she had to choose between isolation
here and return TO Honolulu. She
chose the latter, and is now IN inmate of
the lcpor colony at MolokaL
The disease showed itself sooner in
the second IN age of the two boys than
in the Others, and on May II last Ed
ward, aged 16 was admitted TO the
hospital, He has II large patch of the
peculiar hite-blistered-l BLOCKING flesh
under his left eye. On Aug. Is last his
two brothers-Frank, aged II, and
Ernest, II years old-were admitted to
the hospital suffering from leprosy. and
there the three are and must remain in
living tomb dead to tho world and
the world dead to them, decaying away
with persevering and remorselcss dry
rot, finger joints, toes. and other
members dropping of one by one until
the end comes With no hopes, aims,
nor ambitions, with few pleasures, and
the shadow of their certain doom over
shadowing those few, they may be said
to exist instead Of living
Yet they are in measure cheerful
They read the daily papers and when
visited yesterday by - reporter, were
gathered around fire with u checker
board and several story books for re-
creation. Jerry Sullivan, the steward.
says they have no lack OF reading
matter, and on pleasant days they take
exercise in the hospital grounds. -four
or five acres in extent playing various
games, but sometimes" he says,
they are blue and gloomy at which
the reporter did not marvel when he
remembered that those four white
washed walls are the boundary of THEN
world.
Frank and Ernest the eldest and
Youngest of the three and last to enter
the hospital, are more affected than Ed
ward, with whom the disease appear:
to be progressing more slowly. Tho
fingers of the three are bent and twist
ed into various contoriious. while the